Traffic alerts on the 3590

I just use FM traffic, however I also use the Waze app. on my work phone which polls the cell phone speed to determine traffic and also allows users to report traffic, police, road hazards,etc.

The traffic icon will change in two instances: if there is traffic on your current road, or if there is traffic on your programmed route. In the first instance that only helps if you are staying on the one road for awhile.

I have found that I need to keep the app Inrix traffic open on my iPhone to get more up to date traffic problems on my morning travels. The Garmin is too slow to update. When you are on a limited access highway you need to know quickly if you need to bail. The phone app does a better job of showing me the traffic conditions in the area.

That said, I recently went to LA for the first time and brought my 3790LMT. It did a very good job of rerouting me around some large jams. It saved me a lot of time.

Yep ... It bothers me too that Garmin doesn't gray the icon when it looses reception. It leaves one with the false impression that you are still receiving traffic.

I would be interested in hearing about that as well as I have considered trying it. My 3490 does not get a HD traffic signal in NH at all. I have to get inside of 495 when travelling to Boston to pick up a signal. Often that is too late.
On long trips from NH to NC I use both my 3490 and my 660 with regular FM traffic to get some coverage in areas where HD traffic is non-existent. Having both types of services in one unit would be cool if it worked.
I also agree the traffic icon should change when there is no signal on the 3490's GTM60 receiver

The traffic icon *used* to change to grey when reception was lost. I believe the greyed icon with lost reception began on the 765, then was altered mid-life to only show grey when the receiver was totally disconnected. Just another head-scratcher from Garmin.

My 2595 acts the same way: The traffic icon remains green even when you drill down into the traffic status screen and it indicates the data is out of date or it's not receiving traffic data at all. I have both the standard free Navteq subscription and the optional Total Traffic subscription on this receiver. The only time the icon will turn gray is when you remove the power cord from the unit.

This is in stark contrast to my 255 which DOES gray out the traffic icon when it loses the signal... a very bad step BACKWARDS in the functionality of the traffic feature on my 2595. I wish Garmin would correct it.

Was the traffic signal bar showing green bars? The last data gets cached and I believe once signal is lost, it unfortunately shows the outdated info.

In the example I was referring to, there were no green bars on the traffic status screen, -and- there was a notice (wording) to the effect that no data had been received for "x" minutes and the info was out of date. This happens frequently when you're out in the middle of nowhere even on an the interstate, (and it's to be expected) however on the 255, at least it would visually indicate this by graying-out the traffic icon on the main screen. The 2595 doesn't do this and I'm baffled as to the reasoning behind Garmin taking this mighty step backwards. :^(

And to add: What's really odd, is that the two units behave differently even though they are using the -same- traffic receiver.